Department of MME

BUET, Dhaka
  How do things break?
 Fracture fundamentals
 Ductile vs. brittle fracture
 Characterstics of ductile failure
 Characterstics of brittle failure
 Impact fracture testing
 Ductile-to-brittle transition

Reference:
1. W. D. Callister, Jr. “Materials Science and Engineering An Introduction,”
5th Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Ch. 7, pp.184-209.
 Fracture is the separation of a body into two or more
pieces in response to an applied static stress at a
temperatures that is low relative to its melting point.

 Depending on the ability of material to undergo plastic

deformation before fracture, two fracture modes can be
defined - ductile or brittle.

 Any fracture process involves two steps:

 Crack formation or initiation
 Crack propagation
The mode of fracture is highly dependent on the
mechanism of crack propagation.
 A. Very ductile fracture
Ductile fracture soft metals (e.g. Pb, Au) at room temperature;
very extensive plastic deformation other metals, polymers, glasses at high temperature.
ahead of crack tip B. Moderately ductile fracture
Brittle fracture typical for ductile metals
very little or no plastic deformation
ahead of crack tip C. Brittle fracture
cold metals, ceramics.
Ductile Failure Brittle Failure
Extensive plastic deformation Very little plastic deformation at
ahead of advancing crack the crack front

High energy absorption before Little energy absorption before

failure (high toughness) failure (low toughness)

Process proceeds relatively slowly Crack advances extremely

as the crack length extended rapidly

Such crack is stable (i.e., it resists Such crack is unstable and crack
any further deformation unless an propagation, once started,
increased stress is applied) continues spontaneously
 Dislocation mediated

crack grows
perpendicularly
to applied stress

Steps in ductile fracture

(a) Necking
(b) Cavity formation
45° maximum
shear stress (c) Cavity coalescence to form
elliptical crack
(d) Crack propagation at 45 deg.
(e) Fracture
 Dislocation mediated

Tensile loading Shear loading

Typical Cup-and-Cone fracture

in ductile aluminium Fractographic studies at high resolution using SEM
Dimples (spherical shaped in tensile, parabolic in shear)
correspond to micro-cavities that initiate crack formation
 Limited dislocation mobility

Brittle fracture in a mild steel Scanning electron

fractograph of brittle failure
 No appreciable plastic deformation
 Crack propagation is very fast
 Crack propagates nearly perpendicular to the direction of applied stress
 Crack often propagates by cleavage – breaking of atomic bonds along
specific crystallographic planes (cleavage planes)
 Limited dislocation mobility

intergranular fracture transgranular fracture

fracture crack propagated fracture cracks pass

along grain boundaries through grains
 Stress Concentration in brittle material

The fracture strength of brittle material is much lower than from its ideal strength
It is explained by the effect of stress concentration at microscopic flaws.
The applied stress is amplified at the tips of micro cracks, voids, notches,
surface scratches, corners, etc.

σ0 = applied stress
a = surface or half crack length
 Crack propagation
Cracks with sharp tips propagate more easily than cracks having blunt tips

In ductile materials, plastic deformation at a crack tip “blunts” the crack.

Energy balance on the crack for brittle solid

Elastic strain energy:
Energy stored in material as it is elastically deformed
This energy is released when the crack propagates
Creation of new surfaces requires energy .
Stress concentration factor :
A measure of the degree to which an external stress is amplified
Fracture Toughness
A measure of a material’s resistance to brittle fracture when a crack is present

Plane strain fracture toughness :

Thickness of sample is much greater than
crack dimension in plane strain condition.
KIc value depends on
Temperature
Strain rate
Grain size
Yield strength
 #A sheet of glass measuring 2 m by 200 mm by 2 mm contains a
central slit parallel to the 200 mm side. The sheet is restrained at
one end and loaded in tension with a mass of 500 kg. What is
the maximum allowable length of slit before fracture occurs?
Assume plane stress condition and the following material
property values: E = 60 GPa, surface energy is 0.5 J/m.
Solution :
 Testing of fracture characteristics under high strain rate

Two standard tests, the

Charpy and Izod, measure
the impact energy (that
required to fracture a test
piece under an impact
load), which is also called
the notch toughness.
 WW2: Liberty Ship

Problem:
Used steel with a DBTT about equal to atmospheric temperature !!

Safe design strategy: Stay above the DBTT !!

 Temperature dependency of absorbed impact energy of material

impact energy drops

suddenly over a narrow
temperatures range
(DBTT)

BCC and HCP metals FCC metals

 Show DBTT  Remains ductile even at
 Depends on composition and microstructure extremely low temperatures
(grain size   DBTT)  DBTT  -100 to +100 °C
Effect of composition